He may not have been ready to take the fight to Mitt Romney in Denver last week, but Team Obama wants you to know ithe president welcomes a showdown on… Nickelodeon. Bring. It. On.
President Obama’s peeps say Mitt Romney is gonna be sorry for blowing off a bunch of kids who participated in the Nickelodeon show, “Kids Pick the President.”
The premise of the show — kids submit questions to each candidate and based on the answers they make their pick for leader of the free world.
Obama answered the kids’ questions, but Romney said he didn’t have the time.
Deputy National Press Secretary Adam Fetcher tells TMZ, “It’s no surprise Romney decided to play hookey. Kids demand details, and I’m sure they want some answers on why Romney could increase their class sizes, eliminate their teacher’s jobs, raise taxes on their families and slash funding for Big Bird.”
It’s not off-limits for campaigns to give statements on pop culture subjects, and it can arguably reach young audiences the president clearly needs to pump up. But given President Altitude Sickness’ universally panned performance in Denver last week, should he really be bragging about his ability to face questioning from iCarly anytime, anywhere?
Unless Team Obama thought this was the townhall-style debate the Debate Commission was talking about… Hm, they are doing a bunch of huddling this week, perhaps to adjust preparation given this new information. Too bad, because the president had an absolutely whiz-bang answer on why candy corn is his favorite Halloween treat.
Meanwhile, Romney made an unplanned stop to hang with some elementary school kids today in Virginia. The stop comes at a time when Romney is no doubt anxious to signal he’s unafraid of questions from fourth-graders:
Mitt Romney ordered his motorcade to make an abrupt U-turn in rural Virginia today, after zipping by a group of elementary school students waving in the front yard of the school, so he could go back and meet them.
“Thanks for waving at me as I came by, I decided to come by and say ‘hi’ to you guys,” Romney told the kids, many of whom were fourth- and fifth-graders.
Romney was overheard telling one of the kids that fourth-grade was his favorite.
“I just saw you on TV,” one little girl said to Romney, overcome by excitement and giggling.
Romney, still dressed in a suit and a tie from his formal foreign policy speech he had completed just prior, was visibly amused, laughing with the kids.
One student approached Romney and asked, “Are you Mitt Romney?” The candidate replied, “I am Mitt Romney. And that’s your governor. That’s Governor McDonnell.”
Asked and answered, Mr. President. Who’s ducking questions now?
Three little girls in the front could barely contain themselves, looking at Romney as though he were a modern day pop star. They were red-faced and letting out loud gasps and giggles.
And, yet, this is the photo AP put on the wire from this adorable encounter. Mitt Romney, terrorizing grade-school kids with his well-known penchant for nalgas-flaunting. When this photo was taken, Romney was in the process of squatting to take a photo with the entire class. He and Gov. Bob McDonnell knelt in the front row, so they didn’t obscure any of the kids.
In his answers to Nickelodeon, Obama gives a possible clue as to the problem in Denver: “Running into the wall is par for the course for me. I’m running into doors and desks all the time.”
Sheesh, maybe he should have steered clear of this, too.
Photo on the front page, better than any I found by the Washington Post or AP, via Brittany Cohan of the RNC and Rick Gorka of the Romney campaign.
Can't get enough of this photo. RT @Rick_Gorka: These kids are the best. http://t.co/boruAC4n
— Brittany (@bccover) October 8, 2012
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